The present invention relates to vibratory pile conveyor systems and, more particularly, to an improved modular conveyor system for delivering articles in a desired uniform orientation to a work station area.
The assignee of the present application is also the assignee of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,995,733, 3,841,471, 4,037,710 and 5,301,791. The disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The prior art systems disclosed in these patents include the typical vibratory pile conveyor element which includes a feeder surface or trough having a pile material on its surface. The material includes resilient fibers inclined by about 5 to 25 degrees in the direction of motion of objects or articles to be moved along the feeder surface. Movement of the articles or objects is accomplished by vibrators connected to the feeder surfaces by flexible arms.
These systems have been used in various industries for moving any variety of manufactured articles through a production or process system. The system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,733 is directed to a trough-shaped element lined with pile material.
The feeder and orienter disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,841,471 provides larger feeder surface areas for accommodating bulk quantities of articles dropped from a supply bin. This system provides for the recycling of objects not properly aligned upon discharge.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,037,710 discloses an accumulator for an object feeder of the vibratory type covered with pile material. The preferred embodiment disclosed therein includes an accumulator composed of a vibratory pile conveyor element positioned along one side of the main feed portion of an object feeder surface. The accumulator recycles articles or objects that were crowded out of the main feed portion for later transfer back onto the object feeder.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,791 discloses a vibratory pile conveyor system for delivering elongated articles in a desired uniform orientation to a work station area. The system provides for rapid processing of a continuous flow of unordered and disorganized articles so that the articles enter a work station area with a desired uniform orientation.
The present invention is designed to be used in a conveyor system having an input chute with parallel feeder surfaces. The input chute is provided to direct articles into an accumulator also having independent feeder surfaces. A quantity of articles cycle through the accumulator and are eventually transferred to a delivery feeder surface which in turn directs the flow of articles onto a high-speed endless belt conveyor. The feeder surface rests on a brush plate which is suspended over a vibration table. All of the feeder surfaces are covered with pile material having resilient filaments inclined in the direction of movement of the articles, and are independently vibrated by the method of prior art vibrators. As the articles enter the loading station end of the belt conveyor they are automatically oriented with their longitudinal axes parallel to the direction of travel of the endless belt conveyor. A safety bar is provided at the other end of the belt conveyor to ensure proper alignment of the articles or to return unaligned articles to the accumulator for recycling. The high-speed belt conveyor terminates with a discharge station section adjacent to a work station area. At this work station area, any number of a variety of operations may be conveniently performed on the uniformly oriented and aligned elongated articles. Such operations might include the encoding or reading of information, labeling, inspecting, testing, and stamping or spraying.
After undergoing the operations performed at the work station area, the articles are then transferred to other areas for further processing or handling. As an illustrative elongated article, the accompanying figures show a bulb having an enlarged head. The present invention is not limited to processing bulbs, however, and is easily adapted to accommodate any variety of elongated articles such as bottles and cans.
In the past, the brush plate supporting the pile material was formed through a series of operations including shearing, punching, bending and welding the brush plate and accompanying support structure into the desired configuration. This process was time consuming and the brush plate was expensive to manufacture. The present invention minimizes the manufacturing time and effort by providing an extruded brush plate with slots pre-formed in the brush plate for attachment of supports, vibrators and peripheral walls. The brush plates may be extruded in a variety of desirable widths and to a standard length. We have found that twenty-four feet lengths standard lengths are convenient, but any suitable length may be extruded. The brush plates are then cut to the desired length, by making only a single cut across the width of the brush plates. The need for only this single operation greatly reduces the manufacturing cost for the brush plates. The T-slots for attaching the vibrators and the bolt slots for attaching the peripheral walls are provided along the entire length of the brush plate such that when the brush plate is cut to any length, the vibrators may be attached where desired. Also the bolt slots will be accessible from the end of the brush plate, so that the peripheral walls may be attached. Preferably, the brush plates are manufactured in a variety of widths.
The T-slots are designed to accept T-nuts. The vibrator is attached to an interface plate. The interface plate includes threaded holes to accept bolts. The T-nut is threaded onto the bolt and the T-nut is slipped into the T-slot so that the vibrator is attached to the brush plate.
The bolt slots may be tapped such that bolts may be threaded into the bolt slots to attach the peripheral walls.